Feds Try to Claw Back ‘Loaned’ WPA Artwork From eBay Seller
When the 1938 piece showed up for sale in an online auction, the government smelled a rat.
REUTERS
The U.S. government is attempting to regain possession of a 1938 Works Progress Administration (WPA) painting from a private collector who has so far refused to hand over the $35,000 piece, according to a civil complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court. The work, by late Social Realist artist Mitchell Siporin, was produced under the Federal Arts Project (FAP), a division of the WPA, and loaned to Louisiana State University in 1943. In 2019, it appeared for sale on eBay, listed by a California man who claimed to have purchased the piece, titled “Political Editorial,” in a Baton Rouge gallery while attending LSU. The feds were unmoved by the tale, stating in the filing, “The United States owns the painting. The painting was produced for the federal government as part of the FAP. The United States is not aware of any provision of the FAP by which [the seller] or any other individual obtained title to or ownership of the painting.”
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